Reasons NOT to Buy Youtube Views and Subscribers

Being the second largest search engine, Youtube is a great way to build brand awareness and increase your traffic. However, in the rush to look more popular many people are buying views and subscribers for their videos. Foolishly thinking that this will make them look more popular and get their video on the ‘featured’ page. This is not the case, in fact buying views or subscribers will negatively affect your video marketing strategy.

Youtube is cracking down on fake views and subscribers

With Google now owning Youtube there has been many crackdowns on videos and channels faking their views. Google’s software engineer, Philipp Pfeiffenberger has previously stated that “in an effort to keep up the authenticity of Youtube as a social sharing video network. To make sure that it continues to be a site full of meaningful and genuine human interaction. They will periodically be auditing the videos and validating the view counts and will remove any fraudulent views”.

The company has carried out their warning and has even gone to the extent of deleting videos from large companies such as Sony and Universal. Between these two companies alone there have been up to 2 billion views deleted.

Youtube has also been known to take things one-step further and delete the video all together. They will then notify the owner of the video that their video has been deleted due to fake views being suspected and that the video has been re-posted but with the view count starting at zero.

What This Means For You

There are many dodgy websites out there offering packages for you to fake views, subscribers and even comments. Most of them started in India/Bangladesh/Pakistan, but now even Portuguese, Spanish and Canadian businesses sell this type of useless marketing not only for Youtube but also for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more social networks.. With packages starting as low as 20 dollars USD. It seems too good to be true and it is. These sites claim to offer ‘real’ views but what does that even mean? That the account exists and is linked to an email? That doesn’t mean much when it comes to targeting a real fan base and building a business profile. It’s even more obvious that the comments are bought as they usually are generic comments that can be applied to anything and have nothing to do with your video. Don’t alienate your real viewers by doing this.

If you’ve happened to be persuaded by one of those companies offering to boost your views or subscribers be mindful that your video could be deleted at any time. This means that the real views along with the bought ones will be wiped off. This can really alienate your real subscribers, as they will know that you have tried to cheat the system.

Youtube may also flag your video and channel, in the case that you get tempted to purchase views again. With the risks of losing all your real fans along with the bought ones is it worth buying views in the first place? Considering most views are generated by bots and have no real interests in your industry. There are many ways to get more views naturally. By making your video interesting and offering something real to consumers you can generate views and subscribers organically.